Destiny's Lovers (19 page)

* * * * *

Just before Sidra and Osiyar reached the
temple, the ground began to shake. Sidra stumbled, weaving her way
awkwardly through the entrance in the surrounding wall. She quickly
recovered her balance before turning to the High Priest with an
eager expression.

“This rumbling won’t last long. Come to my
room,” she urged. “We will be safe there, on my large bed. Adana
and Philian surely won’t return for some time yet, not if they walk
back from the wharf with Tamat. Lately, Tamat walks so slowly that
I often grow impatient with her. Come and lie down with me, Osiyar.
Lend yourself to me once more. This day has been so exciting. I
want you to end it by giving me pleasure. And I will please you,
too, as well you know.” Her blue eyes shone; her lovely face
glowed. She caught at Osiyar’s hand to pull him along with her.
Osiyar stood unmoving, holding her loosely by one wrist.

“Tell me, Sidra, why were you so afraid when
Reid suggested that Tamat enter his thoughts?”

“I wasn’t afraid.” Rocked nearly off her feet
by another earth tremor, Sidra shot a surprised glance in the
direction of the smoking mountains. “What a lot of steam. They
shouldn’t be doing that. What do you suppose is wrong?”

“Answer me.” Osiyar’s hand tightened around
Sidra’s wrist until she winced. He spoke with his usual cold
precision. “If you do not answer, I will ask Tamat when she
returns, and she will tell me.”

“Perhaps not. She may not want to speak to
anyone. She will need to preserve all her strength for the Sacred
Mind-linking. I think Tamat may not live very long after that is
completed, so she will be too weak to tell you anything then,
either.”

Osiyar dropped her wrist abruptly. When he
spoke again, it was with deceptive quiet.

“You forget, Sidra, that I am High Priest and
Co-Ruler with Tamat. By our ancient laws, I can command your
obedience and set limits to your power. I think I have been too
lenient with you, too indulgent because of your beauty and
your…skills.” He drew himself up until he towered over the shorter
Sidra. “Tell me why you were afraid of Reid.”

“I touched his mind once or twice,” Sidra
said reluctantly.

“Without permission?” Osiyar was deeply
shocked at such a breach of an immutable law.

“Reid was an alien, an unknown factor,” Sidra
said. “I wanted to be certain he was not concealing some greater
telepathic skill than ours, that might be harmful to us.”

“Only Tamat is permitted free access,” Osiyar
said. “You know that full well, and you know Tamat is satisfied
that Reid is harmless to us.”

“Was,” Sidra reminded him. “Reid is dead now,
along with that stupid Janina, and I am glad of it. He had seen us
together, Osiyar, in your room. The barbaric fool was filled with
disgust at what we so enjoyed.”

“As am I, now.” Osiyar stared coldly at her,
not heeding the renewed trembling of the ground beneath their feet.
“Did you plot his downfall, along with Janina’s? Did you think to
break Tamat’s heart and thus destroy her so you could become High
Priestess at once?”

“I shall be High Priestess by tomorrow
night,” Sidra shouted over the sudden roar of the mountains. “You
and I shall be Co-Rulers.”

“Of what?” asked Osiyar, struggling to keep
his balance. “Of this? Look around you, Sidra. The mountains have
awakened to rain fire and death upon the village, as our ancestors
claimed they did in times long past. When the mountain spews its
insides across Ruthlen and into the sea, will you help the
villagers then as a High Priestess ought to do? Or the farmers?
Will you tend their wounds and bless the dying? Or will you retire
to your khata flower-scented bed to dream of lust and sweet
degradation?”

“If not with you, Osiyar, then I will find
someone else.” Sidra glared at him, her long golden hair whipped by
a sudden gusty wind, her blue robe billowing. Then she smiled her
lovely, false smile. “Come, I will forgive your cruel words. The
temple is the strongest building. Let us go there. It will be the
safest place until this storm passes.”

“It is no mere storm, and it will not pass,”
Osiyar said. “Do you not realize that if Reid knew what we have
done, Tamat also knows? This is her Cleansing.”

“If it is, then Tamat is dead by now, killed
by her own Gift, and I am High Priestess already.” Sidra gave a
wild, high-pitched laugh of triumph, but at Osiyar’s sudden
threatening movement, she stepped back, away from him. “Why,
Osiyar, I thought you loved no one.”

“I may not be able to love, but I am capable
of respect. I know goodness when I meet it day after day. I know
evil when I see it naked before me.”

Osiyar stopped talking. He retreated inside
himself, concentrated, and found Tamat. He experienced a burst of
joy at the contact, and thanked the twin moons and the sun that she
was not dead, though he could tell she was weakened by her last
great effort.

I am here, Tamat. Accept my help.
He
opened his mind to her, let her fully know his foolishness and
vanity, his loveless dalliance with Sidra, and his deep remorse
over the laws he had broken.

You may enter my mind, Osiyar,
Tamat
told him,
but know this task I have set for myself will kill me
and may well kill you, too, if you choose to aid me.

How else can I redeem myself?
asked
Osiyar.
My life means nothing unless I give it to you
now.

Come then, High Priest, and do my bidding.
Join with me.

Tamat opened her mind to him completely,
letting Osiyar know her great wisdom, the centuries of stored
memories, her anguish at what must now be done, and her
understanding of his own guilty pain. With the ground rolling and
trembling beneath his feet and Sidra screaming at him, Osiyar, High
Priest of Ruthlen, stood in the temple complex, withdrawn and
silent, his mind totally linked to that of Tamat on the shaking
wharf.

The mountains split open to spill molten lava
toward the sea as the Co-Rulers, in complete accord at the last,
joined together to destroy their corrupted domain.

“Tarik, come outside and see what has
happened to the lake. There is no wind, but the water has suddenly
churned up into high waves, and they are reaching far up the beach,
almost to the trees.”

“Tarik, look at this.” At the same moment
that Alla entered the headquarters building and began to talk,
Narisa also spoke, pointing to the screen above the
computer-communicator to show her husband the finding that had so
startled her. “Is it an earthquake? A volcanic explosion? What do
you think?”

“It looks like both,” Tarik said. “That’s
strange; it’s near the area where we picked up Herne and Alla. But
there are no volcanoes there, only forest and cliffs. I don’t
understand this new information. It makes no sense. Alla, you say
the lake is covered with waves?”

“Yes. Do you think there might be some
connection to what Narisa is seeing on the screen? Could an
earthquake so far away make the lake water here so rough?” Alla,
while hurrying across the central room to see for herself what had
disturbed her friends, glanced down at the table containing the
computer-generated holographic model of the continent. She stopped,
staring at it, not believing her eyes at first. She needed a moment
to find her voice, and when she did it was not like her own voice
at all, for it crackled with excitement, and the words tumbled over
each other in her haste to speak them.

“In the name of all the stars! Tarik! Tarik,
look! See here! The cliffs are gone. Look!”

Before she had finished speaking, Tank was at
her side, regarding the model with the same fascinated astonishment
that Alla felt. The computer model was generated from information
gathered by the spaceship Kalina, which had been placed in
permanent polar orbit above Dulan’s Planet. They had traveled to
the planet aboard the Kalina, and now Tank kept one or two of his
people there at all times to maintain the ship and monitor the
information sent to his headquarters.

“My readings indicate that part of the
eastern coastline is slowly changing shape,” Narisa said, joining
the other two at the model table. She looked from the model to her
husband. “Gaidar is on duty on the Kalina until noon today. Shall I
check with him, in case it’s an instrument malfunction?”

“Please do. It’s the first thing we should
investigate, but somehow I don’t think it’s the instruments.” Tarik
did not take his eyes from the model. Where once it had shown
cliffs, six steep mountains now rose, while on the far side of the
mountains a narrow crescent of lower land edged the sea. After
another glance at the model, Narisa returned to her post. She spoke
into the computer-communicator while Tarik and Alla waited.

“Gaidar says he was just about to contact
you, because something strange is happening down there,” Narisa
reported. “In addition to the topographical changes we can see on
the model, there has been a series of violent explosions.”

“We can tell that from here,” Alla said
impatiently. “Doesn’t he have any more information? If Reid is
still alive in that area -” She did not finish the sentence, but
stood watching as the top and side of one of the mountains on the
model split open.

“Gaidar says,” came Narisa’s calm voice,
“that it’s as though some kind of shielding mechanism is slowly
being shut off, allowing the true contours of the land to be
gradually recorded on our instruments. He says it looks as though
the cliffs and part of the forest were false readings.”

“A shield?” Alla repeated. “And Reid is
caught in that?”

“Or,” Tarik said slowly, his eyes still
fastened on the model, “it’s like a magical spell that dissolves as
the wizard who wove the spell dies.”

“Spells? Wizards? Are you mad?” Alla tried to
laugh, but could not. This was too serious for laughter. “A shield
has to be generated by someone with considerable intelligence and
technological skill, which makes me wonder if Cetans are on Dulan’s
Planet without our knowledge, and if Reid is not dead, as I’ve been
telling you all along, but is their prisoner.”

“Not Cetans,” Tank said. “Telepaths.”

“What?” Alla cried, and saw that Narisa had
turned from the computer-communicator to stare at Tarik.

“Do you remember when we found you and
Herne?” Tarik asked Alla. “I awakened that day absolutely certain
we would find you exactly where you were. Narisa, don’t you
remember how we laughed about it afterward? We thought then that
the Chon had something to do with our sudden ability to locate
them.”

“Of course,” Narisa replied. “It could be
telepaths. But, Tarik, it would take incredible mental powers to
create such a shield and keep it in place over a long period of
time. You see, I know you well enough by now to believe I know what
you are thinking.” She smiled at her husband, and he smiled back at
her in complete understanding.

“If I’m right, that shield has been in place
for six hundred years,” Tarik said softly.

“I know you love fantastic stories, Tarik,”
said Alla, “but that sounds impossible to me. It would be much more
practical to suspect the Cetans of having a secret monitoring base
on this planet, just as we have.”

“We’re all only speculating.” Frowning
deeply, Tarik watched the still-changing model. “Whether it is
Cetans, or telepaths, or some peculiar natural phenomenon, we need
to know for certain. I think another expedition to that area is in
order.”

“Surely,” Narisa exclaimed, “you aren’t going
directly into that mess now, with volcanic debris in the air, hot
ashes and lava, repeated earthquakes? Not to mention dangerous
gases? If the computer is right about what is happening, that’s
what you will find.”

“We’ll monitor it carefully for a day or
two,” Tarik decided. “If the earth tremors our computer is
reporting settle down, and if this model stops changing shape, we
can fly over the area in a shuttlecraft for a visual inspection.
Care to come along, Alla?”

“You couldn’t keep me away,” she responded
promptly, wishing they could leave at once, but understanding
Tarik’s caution. She would be as patient as she possibly could, and
keep her growing excitement under control. Smiling broadly, she
added, “Herne is not likely to refuse if you ask him.”

“I had planned to do just that,” Tarik
replied, grinning back at her, making her believe that he, too,
thought Reid might still be alive. “Just in case we discover we
need a doctor.”

* * * * *

The great wave rolled beneath the boat
sometime during the night. Thrown off balance, Reid fell down from
the cockpit where he had been standing watch and tumbled through
the hatchway. He landed on top of Janina, who had been thrown out
of her bunk by the sudden lifting and settling of the sea.

Certain the sea monsters had come for them,
Janina screamed in terror. She clutched blindly at Reid’s rough
tunic and buried her face in his chest. Freshly awakened from an
exhausted sleep as she was, she had not had time to remind herself
to pretend to be brave. Fear swept over her, making her shake
uncontrollably.

Reid pulled her to her feet, steadying her
until she could stand by herself. Then he raced for the cockpit,
grabbing the ladder and hoisting himself up it with remarkable
speed. Fully awake now and determined to face their mutual death at
his side, Janina followed him.

The boat had righted itself and lay rocking
gently on a calm sea. There was no sign of any monster. The fog had
dissipated. All around them the world was empty and black, except
for the sky behind them, which flamed with a lurid red glare.

“Is it a huge fire?” Janina asked.

“I believe one of the volcanoes is erupting,”
Reid answered. Seeing her blank look in the ruddy light, he added,
“One of the mountains behind the village. Do you remember how the
pool in the grove was filled with boiling water? And how low the
tide was when we put out to sea? I would say there has been an
eruption, and probably an earthquake, too. What rolled us about
just now was most likely a great wave racing toward shore. Which
means—”